A mailman for the U.S. Postal Service has been taken off his regular route after delivering mail, as usual, to a Denver home, on Nov. 2, supposedly walking right past a man who had died on the front porch.

ABC News affiliate 7News reported that Dale Porch arrived home in the wee hours of that Friday morning after working a late-night shift for the Regional Transportation District, but he never made it inside the house. The 46-year-old man collapsed on the front stoop and went unnoticed until midday, when his son found him. Porch’s son called 911, but resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.

Family members are now questioning if Porch could have been saved had he been attended to earlier. They are accusing the mailman of ignoring Porch’s corpse, which was lying only a few feet away from the mailbox, when delivering the mail that morning, 7News reported. “When we found the body later around noon, he was still warm,” Porch’s sister-in-law Kimberly Cordova told 7News. “Maybe if the mailman had done something, he would still be here.”

The USPS is conducting an investigation, but it released a statement defending its employee, who said he thought the body was a leftover Halloween decoration. “He told us he thought it was a mannequin,” Hedy Porch, Dale’s wife, told 7News. A Denver Post Office spokesman said the mail carrier in question is “extremely distraught” and spoke highly of the postman, explaining the incident “probably would not happen any other time of year.”

We know this carrier to be a conscientious and dedicated employee. He is someone who would not fail to help a customer, if he knew they were in need … Our carriers have a long history of assisting customers in neighborhoods across the country, each and every day, and that holds true for our letter carriers here in Denver.

Mail carriers have saved the lives of their customers in the past. Postman Keith McVey has prevented three deaths during his career, most recently in July 2o10 when he performed CPR on an Akron, Ohio, man. This year, ABC reported in late July that a Long Island, New York, mailman called 911 after noticing his elderly client had failed to pick up two days’ worth of mail and discovering her calling for help through the bathroom window.

I would not have been surprised if he had not seen him at all. You can become very focused on what you are doing when delivering mail. You also get very used to the route. I can imagine a post officer reading an address on a parcel, stepping on to a porch without need to look where to step, and delivering mail without ever needing to pay attention. It is a simply matter of habit. Him having seen the body adds credence to his story rather than takes away from it as he could have simply said he had not seen it at all and his co-workers would have believed him.

Letter carriers are under a lot of stress. They need to know the entire alphabet, as well as numbers 0 through 9 in order to fulfill their duties. It's not surprising that a dead guy is not high on their priorities list.

Somebody needs to proofread this article. "They are accusing the mailman of ignoring Porch’s corpse...'Maybe if the mailman had done something, he would still be here'' If you are already a corpse, there is nothing anyone (with the possible exception of Dr. Frankenstein) can do.

Its not fair to complain about the mailman. Who goes into a job so mundane expecting crazy things like fires or a stabbing (or in this case, a dead person, then probably getting unfairly blamed by family about a death.) when 10 of 10 times with some exceptions in a larger scale people don't do anything about more obvious scenarios in daily life.

Not the mailman's problem - leave the poor guy alone for Pete's sake while he still has his job. Typical modern reaction, blame someone else and try to sue them to get all you can when it was really noone's fault.

Geez, I can't help but notice this every time it happens: 30 years ago when I was married to a German nuclear physicist, he taught me the saying from the Romans "Nomen est Omen," which translates to "The Name is the Warning". So when you write an article about Mr. Porch being found dead on the porch, try to find another word or something for where he was found ("near his front door" or "by the steps") because we don't WANT to laugh about something so heinous, but when you write, "Mr. Porch is dead on the porch!" well, cripes! That makes it sound like a silly kid wrote it. Who's your editor? Ima Reeder?

The mailman should have made sure that what he saw was not a mannequin. On Thursday November 8 I went out very early in the morning to take the family dogs, before leaving for ten days. It was very cold. I saw somebody on the stairs. For a moment I though that this person was dead frozen.I had to make sure that he was alright. I learned that he spent the night there and had nowhere to go for the night. I went and made hot chocolate and gave him a warm blanket for him to keep. In my purse I found $5.00 and some change . I remember telling him (I don't know your name but I'm giving you all the money that I have. We not always need to know who the person is , but we can try to offer a hand when is need it.

@CondeMilanez When you turned away and left, he poured out the hot chocolate, sold the blanket, and bought some booze and/or followed you home and now knows where he can go to get more cash from a nice ol' lady. Good job. Cool story...

@MarshaChambers@ChristineAlling Some people like to whine and make a mountain out of a mole hill. The man is dead and can not be bought back to life, as some fools believe Jesus was. Learn to enjoy humor, and get a life, Christine.